No extra Bs for stents

Nutrition Action Healthletter, Sept, 2004

High daily doses of three B-vitamins (folate, B-6, and B-12) increased the risk that coronary arteries would close again (restenosis) after they were propped open with a wire mesh tube (stent) ... at least in men. Earlier studies had suggested that the vitamins would prevent restenosis.

Researchers gave 636 stent patients either a placebo or a single intravenous dose of the vitamins followed by daily doses of 1,200 mcg of folic acid, 48 mg of vitamin B-6, and 60 mcg of B-12. After six months, arteries had closed again in 35 percent of the vitamin group but in only 27 percent of the placebo group. (Luckily, the vitamin takers were no more likely to have a heart attack or die during the study.)

However, the vitamins didn't raise--and may have lowered--the risk of restenosis in women and in patients who had diabetes or high homocysteine levels. (There were too few people in those groups to tell for sure, though.)

What to do: To play it safe, don't take high doses of B-vitamins after getting a stent. (The amounts in nonhigh-potency multivitamins are okay.) Restenosis occurs less often with the newer generation of stents, which release drugs to keep them open.